Lyris Quartet, artistic advisors

The Lyris Quartet is a Los Angeles based string quartet. The quartet was created from a conversation between violinist Alyssa Park, who has enjoyed an illustrious career as an international soloist and is the youngest prizewinner in the history of the Tchaikovsky International Competition and violinist Shalini Vijayan who has built a career as an advocate of modern music as a member of Grammy nominated groups, Absolute Ensemble and Southwest Chamber Music. Drawing on their diverse backgrounds, these musicians chose to create a string quartet that could encompass their love for both standard and modern repertoire and commission works from living composers. Violist Luke Maurer and cellist Timothy Loo joined the group and Lyris was formally founded in 2008.

The Lyris Quartet has performed at the most prestigious chamber music venues in Los Angeles including the Bing Theater at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Broad Stage, Zipper Hall at The Colburn School, Royce Hall, and Disney Hall. They opened the Long Beach Opera’s production of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen with a featured performance of the “Intimate Letters” quartet and performed the west coast premiere of David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field. Other performances have included the South Bay Chamber Music Series, Los Angeles Music Guild, LA Musical Salon, and Jacaranda: Music at the Edge. Lyris performed the world premiere of a quintet by Peter Golub on the Chamber Music Palisades series and premiered a string quartet by Deddy Tzur at the Soho House in West Hollywood. They are also the quartet-in-residence at the Beverly Hills International Music Festival. Lyris has been heard on multiple live radio broadcasts on KUSC 91.5 and KPFK 90.7.

This season also includes repeat performances at LACMA and Jacaranda as well as debut performances on the Annenberg Series, Harrison House in Joshua Tree, and the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. The quartet has been invited to spend a week residency at UC Davis next spring. A highlight of that week will be performing new works of composers currently at UC Davis.
The Lyris Quartet helps to produce and curate two brand new series. “Hear Now” is a new music festival that includes performances of brand new works by both emerging and veteran composers from Southern California. The inaugural performances of the “Hear Now” Festival took place in May 2011 in Venice. “The Sound Music Festival” is a music series that is based in Long Island, NY. It’s inaugural concerts are in December 2011.

Collaborations

Support

HEAR NOW is supported by the Colburn Foundation, The Berklee College of Music, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and individual contributions. Support for the ongoing HEAR NOW – Paris project is provided by the Mona Bismarck American Center, FACE, the Salabert Foundation, the Ensemble TM+, and the French Ministry of Culture.